AUBURN - Gina Wood was just 42 years old when she began to feel frequent chest pains. By the time she was 43, she had suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery.
“My father died at age 48 from a heart attack, and that should have been a light bulb in my head,” Wood said of her symptoms. “But I kind of blew it off with other excuses.”
At Auburn Memorial Hospital Friday, Wood told her story to roughly 100 local residents as part of Go Red for Women Awareness Day.
Go Red is an American Heart Association annual campaign to raise money for - and awareness about - heart disease prevention. Coronary heart disease kills more women over age 25 than any other illness.
In honor of the day, event participants were decked out in variety of red clothing, including socks, scarves, hats, skirts and dresses.
“As I look out here, it looks like a Cornell football game with all the red in the audience,” joked Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore.
Both Lattimore and Cayuga County Legislature Chairman George Fearon (who wore a red tie and sweater) delivered proclamations marking Friday's event.
Wood, an AMH nurse, spoke briefly about her experience with what in the past had been considered a man's disease. She stressed the need for women to pay attention to their bodies and any symptoms they might have.
When one audience member asked what those symptoms are, cardiologist Dr. Nelly Kazzaz explained how difficult heart disease can be to diagnose.
“If everybody showed up with chest pains, our life would be so much easier,” Kazzaz said, noting that symptoms can range from neck pain to fatigue to indigestion. Much of the time, women may suspect that something is wrong because their body just isn't acting the way it normally does.
But if you're not sure if what you're feeling is a heart attack or coronary disease, it's best to err on the side of caution.
“We don't penalize you if come to the emergency room with something not really serious,” she said.
For Midge Drummond, however, the heart attack symptoms were fairly clear.
One bright summer day, as she was eating lunch and doing a crossword puzzle, she felt a funny feeling in her lower back. That turned into a sharp pain up to her shoulder, and it “got to where I could barely breathe,” said Drummond, who later had to have a stint inserted in her artery.
Drummond praised the hospital's Cardiac Rehabilitation Center, which puts heart disease patients on a 12-week exercise and education program, for assisting her and the more than 800 people who have graduated from the facility.
That program emphasizes components of heart disease prevention, a topic that Kazzaz said was an important step to combating heart disease. Though people can't change family history or slow the aging process, numerous other factors, such as following a healthy diet, going for an annual physical and quitting smoking, can be controlled, she said.
Wood has learned to follow Kazzaz's advice. Her lifestyle modifications include “fighting the smoking battle” and eating her oatmeal.
And she also has a new outlook on life.
As she was recuperating from her bypass surgery, “the grass was greener, the flowers were prettier. I am more appreciative of the things that really matter.”
Staff writer Linda Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or at linda.ober@lee.net
At Auburn Memorial Hospital Friday, Wood told her story to roughly 100 local residents as part of Go Red for Women Awareness Day.
Go Red is an American Heart Association annual campaign to raise money for - and awareness about - heart disease prevention. Coronary heart disease kills more women over age 25 than any other illness.
In honor of the day, event participants were decked out in variety of red clothing, including socks, scarves, hats, skirts and dresses.
“As I look out here, it looks like a Cornell football game with all the red in the audience,” joked Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore.
Both Lattimore and Cayuga County Legislature Chairman George Fearon (who wore a red tie and sweater) delivered proclamations marking Friday's event.
Wood, an AMH nurse, spoke briefly about her experience with what in the past had been considered a man's disease. She stressed the need for women to pay attention to their bodies and any symptoms they might have.
When one audience member asked what those symptoms are, cardiologist Dr. Nelly Kazzaz explained how difficult heart disease can be to diagnose.
“If everybody showed up with chest pains, our life would be so much easier,” Kazzaz said, noting that symptoms can range from neck pain to fatigue to indigestion. Much of the time, women may suspect that something is wrong because their body just isn't acting the way it normally does.
But if you're not sure if what you're feeling is a heart attack or coronary disease, it's best to err on the side of caution.
“We don't penalize you if come to the emergency room with something not really serious,” she said.
For Midge Drummond, however, the heart attack symptoms were fairly clear.
One bright summer day, as she was eating lunch and doing a crossword puzzle, she felt a funny feeling in her lower back. That turned into a sharp pain up to her shoulder, and it “got to where I could barely breathe,” said Drummond, who later had to have a stint inserted in her artery.
Drummond praised the hospital's Cardiac Rehabilitation Center, which puts heart disease patients on a 12-week exercise and education program, for assisting her and the more than 800 people who have graduated from the facility.
That program emphasizes components of heart disease prevention, a topic that Kazzaz said was an important step to combating heart disease. Though people can't change family history or slow the aging process, numerous other factors, such as following a healthy diet, going for an annual physical and quitting smoking, can be controlled, she said.
Wood has learned to follow Kazzaz's advice. Her lifestyle modifications include “fighting the smoking battle” and eating her oatmeal.
And she also has a new outlook on life.
As she was recuperating from her bypass surgery, “the grass was greener, the flowers were prettier. I am more appreciative of the things that really matter.”
Staff writer Linda Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or at linda.ober@lee.net
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